Industry opposes reforms at a time when low oil prices deter drilling.
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Ranch Diaries: Building community in the middle of nowhere
Cattle branding brings together far-flung neighbors in the midst of the “Big Quiet.”
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On a methane mystery tour in the Four Corners region
Scientists, planes and instruments descend on San Juan Basin to find roots of the massive greenhouse gas hotspot.
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Idaho’s Panther Creek comes back from the dead
Two decades after restoration began, life returns to a stream sterilized by mining.
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Political sparring over the Land and Water Conservation Fund
A Wyoming canyon is the focal point of the dispute over the program’s future.
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Washington’s Swinomish sue to halt Bakken oil trains
Many communities fight transport of crude oil through their towns; some find legal footing to succeed.
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Famous Los Angeles puma holes up in residents’ crawlspace
The mountain lion brings attention to the role of urban wilds.
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Utah’s ‘Grand Bargain’ for public lands enters phase three
Bishop pushes what may be the West’s biggest reshuffle of the land checkerboard.
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A street-smart chicken for your backyard
There are many ways backyard hens can die. If you raise them long enough, you’ll see your share. But buff Orpington chickens tend to be survivors. My first clue to their talent for living came when a Siberian husky sneaked into my backyard. A more efficient chicken-killing machine does not exist. The wolfish canine […]
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Dispatch from Cliven Bundy’s latest gathering
Who showed up at the one-year anniversary of the BLM standoff? Most of them weren’t ranchers.
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EPA loophole allows streams of wastewater in Wyoming
Environmentalists challenge permits that result in dumping of toxic chemicals on tribal land.
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Forest Service is still in search of a mission
Perhaps Ken Burns had the right idea when he named his public-television series The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. Even though I worked for the Forest Service for 34 years, I’m inclined to agree with him about the importance of our nation’s parks. But the national forests are surely our second-best idea, a priceless asset […]
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Scientists document mega Oregon-Nevada pronghorn migration
Three hikers will track ecological conditions on the route this June.
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Drilling Chaco: What’s actually at stake
It’s the archaeological landscape beyond New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon that is most threatened.
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Are we in a megadrought?
As the dry-spell continues, a radio forum on water security in Western states.
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As drought pervades, can markets make us water-wiser?
Proponents say market tools can better move water where it’s needed.
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Permafrost’s ticking “carbon bomb” may never truly detonate
New research suggests that carbon stored in frozen soil will be released gradually.
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Rural counties to lose the most from defunded lands programs
What happens to local budgets when Congress stops these federal payments.
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Forest Service sticks up for coal mining on roadless lands
The agency will calculate climate impacts of mine expansions in western Colorado.
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At Hart Mountain, the land came back
Cattle are hard on streams. There’s no getting around it. They’re large creatures, they travel in big herds unlike native ungulates such as mule deer and pronghorn, and they love to hang out in streambeds where the living is easy, with plentiful water to drink and delicate plants to munch on. The damage they do […]